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Bhubaneswar, March 29: FM Soumya Ranjan Mishra played out a drab draw in the ninth and the concluding round to finish seventh with 6.5 points in the IIIrd All India Fide Rating Chess Championship which concluded here Sunday. GM RR Laxman of ICF emerged champion with eight points, IM Himanshu Sharma (7.5) of Railways finished second while IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni of Maharashtra (seven) was third.
Other Oriya players in the fray also disappointed. FM Rakesh Kumar Jena finished eighth while Utkal Ranjan Sahoo was 14th. WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty finished a distant 16th.
Laxman defeated FM Mitrabha Guha of West Bengal convincingly, while Himanshu got the better of Pr Hirthickkeh of Tamil Nadu. Vikramaditya prevailed over WFM R Vaishali.
Rakesh and Utkal however registered victories on the day defeating Boricha Ketan and Biswajit Nayak. However, Soumya Ranjan, Kiran Manisha and Rajesh Nayak played out drab draws.
Champion Laxman bagged a cash prize of `75,000, while runner-up Himanshu took home `45,000. Vikramadity, got richer by `25,000.
Manas wins
Manas Ranjan Parida clinched the title at the Xth All Orissa Open Chess Championship, which concluded at the Secretariat Recreation Club here Sunday. Manas bagged eight points from nine rounds to emerge champion. Prakash Chandra Sahoo (7.5) finished second while Santosh Kumar Sinha was third with seven points. Manas bagged a cash prize of `5,000 along with a trophy, while the runners-up Prakash pocketed `4,000.